To deliver this note, a trusty messenger was needed, and a boat.
And now there was a feeling of bitter regret that the sampan in which Adong had followed them up the river had been abandoned from the hour the man came on board as being a useless appendage at such a time of peril. But Sree declared that there would be no difficulty in finding one after dark, so part of the trouble was at an end.
The question then arose as to who should be the messenger, and Sree now proposed Adong.
He would soon find a boat, Sree said, but he thought that some one should accompany him, and that the some one should be Sahib Harry.
"I couldn't go," said Harry hastily. "I must stay to help here."
"But the young Sahib is wounded; and if he took the letter with Adong, he would be safe."
"I don't want to be safe like that," said Harry hastily. "I can't go, father; I must stay with you."
"But it is most important that the letter should be placed in some Englishman's hands," said Mr. Kenyon; "and Sree is right, my boy; you would be safe."
"Oh no, father," cried the boy excitedly; "there would be as much risk in sending me there as in letting me stay. I may be of some help here; and, besides, I couldn't go and leave you."
Mr. Kenyon gave way. The paper was rolled up small, a bamboo was cut, and into one of its hollows the paper was thrust, and then the place was plugged so that it was water-tight, in case the messenger had to swim. Lastly, armed with a kris in his waist-band, and with one of the spears, Adong, who fully appreciated the importance of his mission, proudly took his departure, going off through the garden; for, as Sree said, no one was likely to interfere with such a man as he at a time like that.